WHIPLASH: Standards neither fair nor lovely

Shameless: Raja Ram Pandey's comments are indicative of a much wider problem

The gratuitous sexist comments of the UP minister for khadi and village industries, Raja Ram Pandey, on Sultanpur's district magistrate smacks of a mindset that treats women like chattel.

Brutal rapes, like the one that shook the nation in the final days of 2012, are extreme expressions of a worldview that regards women, even those in positions of authority, as easy targets of male lust.

What is shocking about the minister's remarks is that they came from a man holding an important office in the country's most populous and politically significant state, and he was commenting about the executive head of a district that is contiguous to the two most important constituencies in the country - those of Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and her heir apparent, Rahul (Amethi).

Civilisationally, India has maintained a Janus-faced attitude towards women. We've been worshipping women, most often in avatars that overturn the conventional notions of femininity, yet our epics show the absolute powerlessness of even privileged women when confronted by patriarchal forces.

Sita was left with no option but to sink into the earth from where she came, according to the myth, when a citizen of Ayodhya questioned her 'chastity'.

Extraordinarily, Lord Ram's decision to subject her to the fire test has been upheld by our political commentators as an instance of a king's respect for his subjects.

Likewise, the utter helplessness of Draupadi when she was being stripped in public by the Kaurava brothers, her five husbands sitting by like dumb spectators, now seems uncannily like a telescopic view of the gender stereotypes that are imposed on our society by men with medieval mindsets.

It's a telling comment on our social values that Yudhishtira was given the punishment of having to take a day's detour to hell on his way to heaven - not because he didn't raise a finger to protect Draupadi's honour, but because he had lied on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.